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CORE SUMMIT 2011
Successfully Held in Shanghai   
On March 18th
and 19th 2011, the first China Outcomes Research and Evidence-based
Medicine (CORE) Summit, jointly organized by the Chinese
Medical Doctor Association (CMDA) and US/China-based Vitalstrategic
Research Institute, was successfully held in Shanghai International
Convention Center. Nearly 200 participants attended the meeting. Among them
were experts and scholars from many academic institutions and government
agencies, including Peking University, Fudan University, Cornell University,
Harvard University, Chinese Ministry of Health, US FDA, UK National Institute
for Health Clinical Excellence (NICE). Many executives and experts from top
international pharmaceutical companies also attended the summit.
Professor Cai Zhongjun, the Vice President of CMDA and co-Chairman of the CORE SUMMIT, made the opening remarks. CMDA is a national, voluntary, not-for-profit, professional association of 2.1 million
practicing physicians in China.CMDA
is
committed to advocating for better public healthcare and providing
leadership
for the Chinese medical community. In his speech, Prof Cai pointed out
that outcomes research and evidence-based medical practice is a rapidly
developing trend, and it has become an international hot spot in medical
research. Outcomes research and evidence-based research ca help better
understand regional and national health issues, including resolving
unmet population heath needs, thus contributing to more informed
decision-making by medical professionals and health authorities. It will
als help the government determine priorities, measure responses, and
make rational allocation of resources.
Dr. Zhang
Danyi, President and Chief Medical Officer of VitalStrategic
Research Institute, also served as co-Chairman of the conference. She
remarked in the opening speech that while outcomes research and
evidence-based medicine are increasingly valued in the US and Europe,
Chinese scholars and policy makers have also been interested in
establishing processes to better integrate real-world evidence into
real-life medical practice, and the CORE SUMMIT was intended to create a
platform where leaders and experts from government, academic, medical
community and industry could share their vision, knowledge, and
processes on how to better evaluate clinical outcomes, assess practice
gaps, reduce medical costs, enhance values of medical intervention and
improve quality of health care.
The first keynote speaker at
the meeting was Dr. Danica Marinac-Dabic, head of epidemiology, U.S. Food and
Drug Administration (FDA). She focused mainly on the U.S. medical device
regulatory framework for post-marketing studies and the importance of cooperation
from all stakeholders in health care. Later, Dr. Art Sedrakyan, Director of
Comparative Effectiveness Research Program at Cornell University provided
examples of when observational studies were more appropriate than Randomized
Controlled Trial (RCT) to estimate the effectiveness of medical interventions.
Dr. Sarah Garner, Associate Director of Research and Development of UK’s National
Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), introduced how UK’s health
system had changed with the increasing influence of the concept of
evidence-based medicine in the past 10 years. Their speeches gave the audience
an overall understanding of why and how western countries has strengthened
outcomes research in recent years.
In order to gain industry
perspective on outcomes research, several research and development and outcomes
research leaders of various multinational pharmaceutical companies were invited
to share their insight, including Dr. Catherine Melfi, Senior Director of
Global Health Outcomes from Eli Lilly, Dr Joanne Chang, Chief Medical Officer
from Novartis China, Dr. Zheng Gu, Senior Medical Director from Sanofi-Aventis,
Dr. Manny Papadimitropoulos, Director of Outcomes Research of Eli Lilly and Dr.
Wang Dan, Chief Medical Director of Express Script China. A panel discussion on
RCT vs outcomes research with leaders from Merck, Astra-Zeneca, Eli Lilly and Venturepharm
was very well received. Those experts from the industry agreed that Outcomes
Research could have the same level of significance as RCT when used to
adequately assess the efficacy, effectiveness and safety of new pharmaceutical
products. The industry will increase their support for outcomes research in
China and utilize real-world data to guide the direction of their research
activities.
Among the attendees were
also many from the government.Ms Kong Linzhi, Deputy Director of Chronic
Disease Control, Ministry of Health, emphasized the importance of using
evidence-based medicine to help improve the level of disease control in China.
Mr. Hongxiang Fu, Director of Human Resource and Social Security Bureau of
Zhejiang province, posited that evidence-based policy-making in the
government-managed medical insurance program will be the future direction of
reform.
“Integrating Real World
Evidence into Real Time Practice” is the major theme of this conference.
Practicing medical doctors could play the most important role in advancing this
concept. Many physicians spoke on their experience and understandings of conducting
outcomes research. Among the speakers were Dr. Hu Dayi and Dr. Ji Linong, from
People’s Hospital, Beijing University, Dr Li Guanghui from Huashan Hospital,
Fudan University, Dr. Wang Yilong from Beijing Tiantan Hospital, Dr. Huang Wei
from Chongqing Medical University. The physicians, from many different angles,
talked about that data from outcomes research has helped make better clinical decisions
and will help better establish medical guidelines and decision pathways. Dr. Hu
and Dr. Ji also introduced the China Cardiometabolic Registries (CCMR)
organized by Chinese College of Cardiovascular Doctors affiliated to CMDA and
Chinese Endocrinologists affiliated to CMDA. CCMR is a serial of outcomes
studies on cardiometabolic diseases in China, the result of which will greatly
influence the practice patterns of Chinese physicians.
The conference also included
a session on technology use in data capturing and methodology issues in
outcomes research. Speakers in this session included Prof Wang Jiyao from Fudan
University, Prof Zhan Siyan from Beijing University, Dr. William Wang from
Merck, Dr. Daniel Liu from Medidata. Their presentations also generated many
discussions on those important issues.
The
CORE summit ended in
warm atmosphere in the afternoon of March 19. Feedback from the majority
of participants of this meeting was very positive and encouraging. Many
participants felt that the meeting enhanced their knowledge and understandings
of outcomes research and evidence-based medicine, and provided excellent opportunities
for them to have direct dialog with top experts in those fields. Many
physicians also expressed their hope that more rational and evidence-based
decision making will be the way to go for the Chinese health care system. The second China
Outcomes Research and Evidence-based Medicine (CORE) summit has been
tentatively scheduled to be held in Shanghai in March next year. The school of
Population Heath of Thomas Jefferson University in the US has offered to be one
of the co-organizers.
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